This week Aaron Rand & I break out the whips and anti-venom for a look at the 30th anniversary of the Atari video game Pitfall! I also explore a proper caller ID app for Android users and celebrate the arrival of news reading app Pulse for web browsers. Finally an app you don’t need a phone or tablet to enjoy.
Current Caller ID
Free
Before you answer your phone, Current Caller ID will give you as much information about the person calling you as it can. This means going beyond a name, photo, and number to include the weather and local news where that person lives and if they are part of your social circle, their last updates from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn too. This gives you a few seconds to see what’s happening in that person’s life (moving, getting married, having a baby) before you answer.
The app will also offer more details in your call history logs, offering up infographics and charts that show patterns in how people tend to reach out to you. You’ll notice that some friends are more likely to answer a call early in the morning, others on the weekend. Some always text you instead of calling at night, etc. This will help you figure out the best time to reach people and get them when it’s most convenient.
Current Caller ID is made by White Pages in the United States and so you’ll get the best results from American phone numbers and addresses, but it does access Canadian directories to work here.
Note: Current Caller ID is completely free. There is a paid version also in the Google Store that offers up more detailed call history reports called Current Caller ID+. Some people have confused these two apps with an older, paid White Pages app that offered a 7-day trial. To be clear, there is no such trial in the new apps.
Some commenters in the Google Store express a concern that the app might increase telemarketing calls. Current Caller ID is by the official White Pages directory in the United States and remains a highly trusted source of directory information and telemarketing detection.
Pitfall!
$0.99
It’s been 30 years since Pitfall! invaded living room televisions with the Atari 2600 video game system. To celebrate, Activision has released this all-new version that offers 3D graphics and an intense chase where you have to guide Pitfall Harry to outrun a psychotic monkey and an angry volcano.
By swiping the screen, you have to slide under falling trees, use vines to swing across chasms, and dodge deadly snakes and scorpions. If you live long enough you can go for a mine cart ride or make a death-defying escape on a motorcycle.
While it’s a fun game, Pitfall! offers little nostalgia for the original, building instead on ideas and concepts introduced earlier this year by the equally-fun Temple Run.
Pulse
Free
Pulse will gather the top headlines and articles from many of your favourite websites and gather them all together into a single, visual presentation. It makes it very easy to see all of the day’s stories in a glance. When you select an article, it singles it out in a view that makes it easier to read. From there a few clicks will let you share it across your social networks or send it to your favourite productivity services such as Evernote or Instapaper.
The big news is that Pulse is now available as a website, meaning you don’t have to have a smartphone or tablet to use it. Just visit http://www.pulse.me in your web browser. Aside from gather stories in one place, a big value are the controls to change font sizes and background colours.
